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here and abroad, that share a similar mission or have knowledge and skills that would be
valuable to the Secret Service. The Panel spent significant time interviewing leaders inside and
outside the federal government who are experts in technology and protection of physical
locations, and the Service could benefit greatly from long-term consistent engagement with these
types of complementary experts. Such engagement should include regular and hard-edged
evaluations of the Service itself, as well as its methods; this kind of constant evaluation and
improvement needs to become part of the Secret Service's culture.
The next director also needs to help the Secret Service be clear about its priorities, and
there should be no doubt about what comes first. The agency exists to protect the President and
its other very high-level protectees. Yet the Secret Service has sometimes acted in ways that
send mixed signals on a number of fronts. While promoting other capacities might help bring
resources into the agency, the new leadership needs to think carefully about how the agency's
core priorities are implemented up and down the organization, and focus on improving them.
The new leader will also need to reform the Secret Service's administrative capabilities.
If the Secret Service is to remain the best in the world and defeat its adversaries every time, it has
to be the best in every facet of the game. An agency that needs the best agents and officers on
the front lines needs a hiring process run by human resources experts valued for their specialized
knowledge about how to recruit and retain talent, in a timely and efficient manner. An agency
that needs to be three steps ahead of those who would do its protectees harm needs more of the
best and most innovative scientists and engineers dreaming up ways to defeat the next threat.
And an agency that needs to spend every penny wisely needs an administrative department that
can demonstrate with rigorous precision why additional resources are necessary and knows how
to budget for it.
Finally, the next director will need to help strengthen a culture of accountability. The
organization asks its protective agents to stand in front of a bullet to protect the President. It
expects its Uniform Division officers to maintain high alertness at every moment of a long shift.
It requires its advance teams to scour massive new venues for the smallest weakness. The
agency's zero-failure mission requires that its high standards be met. In order for the Service's
agents and officers to meet its high standards, they must see that the organization itself believes
in its standards and enforces them in a consistent, evenhanded manner. In other words, agency
leadership, managers, and front line supervisors must believe and show that they are accountable
for their mission. These are not just morale issues, or issues of fairness or trust. Accountability
creates the culture of performance that the Secret Service needs to meet its zero-failure mission.
The necessary changes will thus require strong leadership, but they will also require
resources. The Secret Service is stretched to and, in many cases, beyond its limits. Perhaps the
Service's greatest strength-the commitment of its personnel to sacrifice and do the job "no
matter what"-has had unintended consequences. Special agents and Uniformed Division
personnel protecting the White House work an unsustainable number of hours. Rather than
invest in systems to manage the organization more effectively and accurately predict its needs,
the Service simply adds more overtime for existing personnel. Rather than sending its agents
and officers to training, it keeps them at their posts.
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